1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a television, and more particularly to a television having a V-chip (Violence-chip) for a program rating function and restricting a segment of the audience from watching harmful programs. The present application is based on Korean Patent Application No. 2001-44354, which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a television receives RF signals for television broadcasting of a plurality of channels received from a television broadcasting station through an antenna. When a channel is selected, an RF signal of the selected channel is tuned among the RF signals of the received plurality of channels. A video signal and an audio signal are reproduced after a video signal processing and an audio signal processing with respect to the tuned RF signal is performed.
Since television programs are broadcast considering age groups of the audience to get a high popularity rating, children and minors can watch some programs, which might affect them badly if there is no restriction on the programs.
To solve the above problem, a program rating system has been introduced since the early 1960's in the U.S.A., Canada, France, Australia, etc.
Received broadcasting signals include the program rating corresponding to the programs, and a V-chip (Violence-chip) prevents some harmful programs from being watched by children and minors by using the included program rating. The V-chip compares program rating information, such as the program rating included in the broadcasting signals, and a program rating set-up in advance by a user, and blocks a specific program according to the compared result to restrict some segments of the audience from watching harmful programs.
However, although the user buys the television having the program rating function, when the user does not know that the television has a V-chip or the user does not set up the program rating due to the inconvenience of the V-chip, the programs are broadcast without any restrictions. Thus the V-chip, which is expensive to buy and install, becomes a useless thing.